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Overview
One of Lincoln’s abiding themes was foreshadowed in his Lyceum Address, delivered when he was not yet thirty: the call for the prevalence of a sort of public opinion that he characterized as a political religion. As it relates to democratic statesmanship, what does Lincoln’s political religion have to do with religion per se? How, in his role as statesman as a master of democratic speech, did Lincoln handle the two major issues he faced as a political leader: slavery and the war? In attempting to meet the demand that he use acceptable means to achieve his ends, did Lincoln—can any statesman—keep his hands clean? Are there inevitable transgressions that a statesman must commit? These are among the topics the authors take on as they consider Lincoln’s democratic and rhetorical statesmanship, on occasion drawing comparisons with his contemporaries Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas or even such a distant forerunner as Pericles.
Finally, framing statesmanship in terms of three factors—knowledge of the political good of a community, circumstance, and the best possible action in light of these two—this volume renders a nuanced, deeply informed judgment on what distinguishes Lincoln as a statesman, and what distinguishes a statesman from a (mere) politician.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780700629381 |
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Publisher: | University Press of Kansas |
Publication date: | 05/05/2020 |
Series: | Constitutional Thinking |
Pages: | 312 |
Sales rank: | 688,055 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Foreword Sanford Levinson vii
Introduction Michael P. Zuckert 1
1 Reverence, Hope, and Charity: The Democratic Virtues of Lincoln's Political Religion Zachary German 20
2 Lincoln and Clay: What Is a Statesman to Do? Kevin Vance 58
3 Lincoln and Douglas: On Democratic Statesmanship Michael P. Zuckert 100
4 The Statesman of Two Unions Matthew Van Hook 122
5 "Human, All Too Human": Lincoln and the Price of Statesmanship Matthew Hartman 164
6 Executive Power and Constitutional Necessity Benjamin A. Kleinerman 194
7 Death and the Common Good Jakub Vohoril 210
8 Lincoln atop the Civil Religion Tradition Mark Hoipkemier 240
Epilogue Michael P. Zuckert 273
About the Contributors 281
Selected Bibliography 283
Index 285